Clinton on the 6th anniversary of Brady law

[dZ]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/html/19991130_1.html THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, November 30, 1999


STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Today, on the sixth anniversary of the historic Brady Law, I am pleased to announce new figures that demonstrate the profound impact this
legislation has had on public safety. Data released today by the Department of Justice show that the Brady Law, since its passage in 1993, has helped
block over 470,000 sales by licensed gun dealers to felons, fugitives, stalkers and others prohibited from purchasing firearms. In the last year alone,
the National Instant Criminal Background Check System created under the Brady Law has blocked sales to over 160,000 of these restricted buyers.

These numbers, of course, are not just numbers. They represent lives saved, injuries avoided, tragedies averted. They are a measure of what we can do
to reduce gun violence -- and a measure of what still needs to be done.

In addition to our success with the Brady Law, this Administration has taken important actions to crack down on the illegal market that supplies
juveniles and criminals with firearms. Today, Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers will launch the newest tool to fight illegal gun dealing --
"Online LEAD," a new technology to help law enforcement across the country use crime gun tracing data to catch more illegal gun traffickers more
quickly.

As a result of these efforts, and those of communities across the country, violent gun crime is down by over 35 percent since 1992 and the murder
rate is at its lowest level in over three decades. But while we are more effective than ever before at keeping guns out of the wrong hands, our work is
by no means finished. Over 32,000 Americans still lose their lives in gunfire every year, including 12 children every day. That is why I pledge to
make passage of common sense gun legislation my top public safety priority next year. And I challenge Congress to make a New Year’s resolution
to do the same.

 

[Coinneach]

Thanks, now I have to go replace my lunch, since the food I ate 30 minutes ago is now floating out to sea.

Would it be asking too much to muzzle this hypocritical bastard for the next year? Every time he opens his mouth, he makes me ill.

------------------
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it."
-- John Hay, 1872

 

[ctdonath]

Data released today by the Department of Justice show that the Brady Law, since its passage in 1993, has helped block over 470,000 sales by licensed gun dealers to felons, fugitives, stalkers and others prohibited from purchasing firearms.

Despite having clearly identified the occurance, location, time, perpetrators and nature of these 470,000 felonies, (and now with NICS providing this info almost instantly) the Justice Department and FBI have wilfully failed to pursue and prosecute nearly a half-million felonies. Nearly all of these felonies would be "slam dunks", pathetically easy to locate, apprehend and convict. Time and again, this administration would rather write law than enforce it.

 

[Alan B]

Wonder how many of these "12 children every day" are 18-20 drug dealers killed in sour drug deals???

 

[dZ]

Instant Gun Checks Halt Sales

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 160,000 people, nearly three-quarters of them convicted felons, were barred from buying a gun during the
first year of computerized instant criminal background checks, the Justice Department says.

The overwhelming majority of 8.7 million would-be gun buyers were approved during the year. Most checks took seconds and nearly all were
complete within two hours.

Combined with the 312,000 handgun purchases barred during the manual checks in effect from Feb. 28, 1994, through Nov. 30, 1998, the
Brady Act has barred a total of more than 470,000 prohibited people from acquiring firearms, the department said Tuesday.

State and local authorities did background checks under the old system. Under the National Instant Criminal Background Check System that
began Dec. 1, 1998, the FBI does about half the checks and states do the remainder. Since the computerized system began, rifles and other long
guns, as well as handguns, have been covered.

``The system has proven to be highly effective, performing more than 8.7 million checks in its first 12 months,'' Attorney General Janet Reno
said. ``Keeping guns out of the wrong hands has been critical to the success of our strategy for reducing gun violence and ... (has) contributed
to the unprecedented 7 1/2 -year decline in crime in this country.''

President Clinton said in a statement: ``These ... are not just numbers. They represent lives saved, injuries avoided, tragedies averted.'' And
the president announced that the Treasury Department on Tuesday began a new computerized program, called Online LEAD, to help local
police use gun-tracing data to catch illegal gun traffickers.

The FBI said 71 percent of the checks it handled resulted in immediate approvals for the gun sale, with these checks taking an average of 30
seconds once the relevant data was entered by gun store sales clerks. Within two hours, checks have been completed on 95 percent of all
potential sales. Only five out of 100 checks took longer. The FBI and states have up to three days to complete the checks and halt the sale or the
gun can be sold.

Of the prospective buyers denied firearms in FBI checks, 72 percent were felons, 12 percent were convicted of domestic violence, 4 percent were
abusers of illegal drugs, 3 percent were subject to domestic violence restraining orders and 3 percent were fugitives from justice.

The remaining 6 percent included the mentally ill, those with dishonorable military discharges, those who have renounced U.S. citizenship
and illegal aliens. Some states have other categories of prohibited purchasers as well.

The National Rifle Association and gun advocates have criticized the Justice Department for charging only a tiny fraction of those denied guns
with illegally attempting to buy a gun.

Reno and other Justice officials have responded that the law was basically designed to stop the illegal sales and that prosecuting all the denied
people would swamp the federal courts. But they predict more federal prosecutions of repeat gun-purchase offenders in the future.

The department said the FBI handled 4.37 million checks and the states handled 4.34 million during the last year. The FBI denied more than
80,000 gun sales and, based on data from the states, estimated that the states also denied more than 80,000.